Now that she is 7-months-old, Maddie is completely revamping the way she eats solid food. As a matter of fact, solid food intake is becoming quite the extreme sport in our household along the lines of skydiving and repelling.

Our first extreme meal started during the late morning. It turns out that a little bit of cinnamon oats and apple can go a long way in the arena of face painting.

It’s funny how this activity starts off in such a civilized manner. I gently urge Maddie to “help me” with the spoon and she gently guides it right into her mouth. However, after about our fifth spoonful of “civility” things start to break down. The first sign is when the baby decides that the contents in her mouth need a closer inspection.

She reaches in and comes out with fingerfuls of the goop we worked so hard to get in there in the first place. She examines these contents with a laser-like focus, evaluating what went in and how it has changed in appearance.

After her curiosity is satisfied, she decides that the mess on her fingers should be liberally applied to her left ear. WHAT A GREAT IDEA!! And once the left ear amassed a generous portion of oats and apples all over it – she just had to keep going.

So after every few spoonfuls, she shared the rations with her hungry left ear. Not the right ear, which is far too civilized for such antics, just the left one. Needless to say, our cleanup took a bit longer than usual.

The nighttime meal of homemade sweet potato produced a whole new set of challenges in the form of FLYING FOOD! Who knew that sweet potato was so aerodynamically designed for flight?

When my wife came home this evening, she noticed that my eyebrows and eyelids were caked with a spackling of sweet potato. She must have thought that I was trying to keep up with Maddie. This is because the baby determined that not only can sweet potato fly, but it also works as some type of mudpack to be applied liberally around the mouth and eyes.

As you can see from the picture above, a good time was had by all and Maddie was taking no prisoners.